The Deseret News has provided an editorial response to the interview with me they published earlier this week. The editorial is titled Universities will be relevant.
The things about the response that make me giggle are: (1) the newspaper felt a need to write a response to a piece written by one of its own reporters, and (2) the editorial largely agrees with my assessment of the future risk to higher education. In fact, as far as I can tell, the only disagreement the Deseret News has with the earlier article is an argument with the headline of the story – in which I was quoted very much out of context, as I explained yesterday.
Life goes on…
Correct me if I’m wrong, but having taken several classes from you, I do not recall ever hearing you say that online education is better than classroom education. That’s the part that’s got me stumped. The original article and thus their editorial response and the slashdot discussion all focus on online versus face to face education. It’s not a matter of pitting one against the other, but using the two in combination with other methods as is most effective for the people you’re trying to teach. That said, an online component is largely missing for many students that would benefit from it.
David,
I find your work very interesting. I teach statistics and economics at a small university in Kansas City. About a year ago, I started posting some of my statistics lectures on Youtube. I created a Youtube Channel called Youtube.com/statisticsfun, so my students could re-watch my lectures. What happened really shocked me!
My views to my youtube channel are approaching 40,000. My channel has existed for less than a year. More than my students are watching these lectures and there is some demand for online lectures. I will be honest, my online lectures are just okay.
There has been a positive impact to my physical class too. Some of my students are taking notes differently than before. They do not try to write what I am showing them because they can access that later on. What they write are their thoughts and questions.
I find myself covering much more than the mechanics in class now because I know the students can watch the mechanics on their own time. I spend more time on applications and examples. While I believe my course is more rigorous than before, the average grade students earn is rising.
Thanks for your insightfulness
David Longstreet